flatlander

(Offtopic...)
If y'all have wireless noise cancelling head phones, they work fine as phone headsets. I use mine for conference calls all the time, I rarely take out my dedicated phone-bluetooth-headset any more, just put on the Boses, switch the pairing to the phone, and hit 'dial'.

rossmacd

If this news means that more agents have the flexibility to get GGL/CCR members onto earlier flights (without change fees), I'd be most happy ^

I hate having to stand at the GC Ticketing Desk for someone with some ticketing skills to tap away to make the change - and it usually takes a while. Thankfully, BA have been kind to me over recent months and got me moving quicker than my booked (inflexible) ticket.

DYKWIA

#BAInvestment4U

^^^

orbitmic

I think that the posts suggesting that staff are already helpful miss the point. Of course, we still have to see if the initiative genuinely creates what it claims or if those are just words, but if it is genuine, this could be one of the most important improvements in a long, long time.

At the moment, staff are still very strictly tied to a number of existing procedures and "one size fit all" rules. Empowering them means giving them not only the right but the legitimacy and encouragement to display judgement and depart from those rules where there is strong reason to do so. At the moment, this is extremely difficult to do, and if BA are genuinely telling their staff "go ahead, now we trust you to make that call", this can be a true revolution. It is not (and should not be) a case of "free dinner for everyone" and allowing everything, but just simplifying the process through which staff can and feel legitimate to go beyond the rules where unique circumstances justify it, but it would be a true customer-centric change of perspective. Let's hope it is for real but if so it will be worth applauding.

T8191

The akill-set of these staffers would require them to be regular readers of BAFT

How often have we had reports where the BAFT Pax knows more about the rules than the Agent? It’s a very complex world out there.

xenole

Do the staff actually want this ability though?

I know many people who are happy doing what they do and don't want to take on extra responsibility that may well not be paid accordingly, if at all, or once you start doing it, it's expected.

Sure somewhere along the line a load of jobs will be shed ss they'll have these agents doing it instead

Greenpen

LupineChemist

I'm a firm believer in incrementalism. A small incremental change is much more likely to take hold than trying a large sweeping change. So in that sense I think that even if thinking that this isn't a cure and there's plenty of work to be done, this can still be a good thing. Moving in the right direction should be applauded even if it leaves more to be desired.

Confus

Anonba

HIDDY

Indeed....the pax is often wrong.

Let's hope this new initiative will benefit those passengers who are less savvy than others. Personally I've always found a smile and realistic attitude is enough to motivate staff into doing their best to help you.

harryhv

Ten things that BA can't or won't do on the ground today and probably won't tomorrow:
1. Through-check your bags when travelling with BA"s airline partners on separate tickets
2. Bypass BA's spiteful "conformance" stooges at security, whose only job is to throw you off the flight 35 minutes ahead though your flight may not even have started boarding yet
3. At check-in, direct you to your gate rather than concealing the gate assignment until the last minute in the hope you'll spend more in the shops
4. At check-in, change you to an earlier flight if space is available (compare AA, UA etc)
5. Or, put you on a same-day-standby for earlier or even later flights (compare AA, UA etc)
6. Enable the GA to assist you with rebooking on standby or misconnections (compare AA, UA etc) see posts above
7. Ensure that families are seated together if/when they haven't coughed up BA's ludicrous price to pre-assign seats, even for J customers
8. Direct you the shortest route to the lounge rather than walking you past a row of overpriced shops and back again
9. Take heed of the priority sticker on your checked bag
10. Some, any electronic process to identify the location of your lost checked bag

corporate-wage-slave

Just to save everyone from piling in - points 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 above are incorrect, 6 and 8 is possible for those with status. 9 is correct as stated, since it is actually barcode controlled rather than sticker controlled, however the LD3 process generally works, but I agree non-consistently.

More generally, I'm not actually sure what the news is here, since the tablet rollout has been ongoing for some time now. I guess they are now training more agents into using the features mentioned, but looking at the list they've been in place for a while.

orbitmic

Indeed, (in my view desirable) news would be more to empower contact centres with some of the rights of exceptions airport counters have that contact centres don't.

orbitmic

If the bit about 'it's about trusting people and empowering them' is genuine and not devoid of any meaning, the news as I understand it would be about entrusting individual agents with some level of discretion in specific scenarii, which they currently do not have and which requires clearance from station managers or equivalent. That would be in line with what AF started doing a bit over a year ago. I agree there is nothing new about the technical/ipad/walking side.

Incidentally it is unclear what will change at outstations.